§ COLONEL SYKESasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether any information, official or otherwise, has reached the Foreign Office to the effect that the Russian diplomatic authorities in China have entered into arrangements with the Tartar Government to aid in taking the cities of Nankin, Soochoo, and Hangchow, on condition of having ceded to the Russian Government Chilean and the adjacent islands in the mouth of the Yang-tse-Kiang; whether the Toutai of Ningpo has issued a Proclamation announcing that 343 barracks were to be prepared for 2,000 Russian troops at Ningpo; whether it is true that the French are appropriating land at Ningpo; are raising a body of Chinese troops under French officers; and whether the Customs Duties at Ningpo are being collected by an officer in the French Navy?
§ MR. LAYARDsaid, that with respect to the first part of the inquiry, reports had reached Her Majesty's Government of the nature to which the hon. and gallant Member had referred; but they had no reason to believe that they were true. As regarded the French, he believed the French officers had been employed in disciplining Chinese troops, but he was not aware that they were raising any special bodies under the command of French officers, nor was he aware that barracks were being prepared at Ningpo; and as regarded the employment of a French officer in collecting the customs duties at Ningpo, there were no doubt Frenchmen as there were men of other nations, employed by the Chinese in the collection of the customs.